Scientists studying honeybees have learned a lot about how a swarm decides where to locate its hive. The decision is critical, because a wrong decision can leave the hive exposed to deadly winter weather; therefore, bees need an effective voting system that reliably and efficiently yields their optimal hive location. …
After reading the Cato report about terrorism, I suddenly realized why Republicans have been so gung-ho to declare "war" against terrorism: because it's the easiest war in town. The odds that any American will die from a terrorist attack are microscopic, so what better thing to declare "war" against than…
One of the main causes of America’s Revolutionary War against Britain was the fact that British Parliament was passing tax laws against the Colonies, but was also denying the Colonists the right to be represented in Parliament to protest those taxes. “No taxation without representation” was the rallying cry that swept through the New world and solidified opposition to Britain’s dictatorial rule.
This rallying cry came thundering back into my head this week as I was reading the Bible — specifically, Daniel, chapter 9. Nearly the entire chapter is devoted to Daniel begging for God’s forgiveness, because of Israel’s failure to obey God’s laws. I suddenly realized that of the 600+ laws that God handed down to the Isrealites (the Ten Commandments were only a brief summary), *not one* was enacted with the consent, or even the counsel, of the Israelites. As I read through the chapter, I suddenly realized how absurd Daniel’s begging sounded. God did not give Daniel, or any other Israelite, any role whatsoever in making the laws that God handed down, so why should the Israelites take the entire blame for not following them? Just as the American Colonists did in the Revolutionary War, shouldn’t Daniel have objected to dictatorial law-making as fundamentally unfair, instead of begging forgiveness for not adhering to it?
Let me anticipate the Christian objection: unlike British Parliament, God is righteous and perfectly fair; therefore, his laws are, too. Really? If God is so perfect and fair, then why didn’t his elaborate …
It's time we acknowledge that conservative (Republican) efforts to ban same-sex marriage are just another type of eugenics. The history of the 20th-century is full of examples of majorities that tried to deter or prevent "undesirable" minority groups from having families. The mentally ill, the mentally disabled, the physically deformed,…
Here's a provocative article about why bicycling might, in the long run, be harmful to the environment. Here are the author's main conclusions: Human-powered transportation can substitute for trips by single-occupant automobiles. This substitution has a direct and immediate benefit of reducing energy consumption, even accounting for the latent energy content of…